View source for Expanding mini-grids during Covid-19 – Experiences from Kalobeyei


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== Overview [Draft]<br/> ==

In the Kalobeyei&nbsp;Settlement&nbsp;and host community town, ESDS Kenya supported the Covid-19 response measures&nbsp;of&nbsp;local authorities&nbsp;and UNHCR&nbsp;by&nbsp;electrifying&nbsp;facilities&nbsp;that&nbsp;enhance&nbsp;efforts to contain&nbsp;the pandemic. In total, 3 health facilities,&nbsp;providing&nbsp;medical&nbsp;services&nbsp;to&nbsp;refugees&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;host community, 4 schools, earmarked as isolation&nbsp;centers, and&nbsp;1&nbsp;horticultural farm run by WFP&nbsp;which sustains the food supply&nbsp;were connected to&nbsp;two&nbsp;mini-grids in the Kalobeyei Settlement and Town.&nbsp;As rapid&nbsp;response&nbsp;measure, they&nbsp;have&nbsp;an&nbsp;immediate&nbsp;impact&nbsp;on&nbsp;mitigating&nbsp;Covid-19,&nbsp;while&nbsp;they also improve the energy services in&nbsp;Kalobeyei&nbsp;beyond the pandemic&nbsp;and align with the broader objective of ESDS.<br/>

<br/>[[File:Minigrid Kalobeyei.jpg|thumb|center|500px|Mini-Grid in Kalobeyei.Source: Renewvia Energy]]<br/>

== Article<br/> ==

The Kakuma Refugee Camp and the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, located in Turkana County at the north-western border of Kenya, currently host close to 200,000 refugees from Eastern and Central Africa. Albeit donors and humanitarian organizations installed mini-grids and the nearby Kakuma town is connected to a sub-station of the national grid, only [https://www.unhcr.org/ke/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/06/Briefing-Kit_May-2019-approved.pdf 5 percentage of households] in the camps had reliable access to electricity in 2019 according to UNHCR, while many systems, including the sub-station, run on diesel generators.<br/>

To remedy this situation and&nbsp;as part of its efforts&nbsp;facilitate the market-entry of&nbsp;the&nbsp;private sector in providing sustainable energy,&nbsp;EnDev&nbsp;supported the installation of two mini-grids in the Kalobeyei Settlement Village 1 and Host Community Town&nbsp;in cooperation with national and local authorities and UNHCR. The&nbsp;mini-grids&nbsp;are run by a private company on a self-sustaining business model and provide electricity for households from the refugee and host community,&nbsp;SMEs&nbsp;and social institutions at a tariff close to the national level.&nbsp;This&nbsp;was achieved by&nbsp;offering a grant to cover a portion of the capital investment&nbsp;and&nbsp;Results-based Financing (RBF) to the operating company.&nbsp;Since September 2019, both&nbsp;mini-grids&nbsp;are operational&nbsp;and serve&nbsp;close to&nbsp;600 households, businesses and social institutions.&nbsp;<br/>

They&nbsp;provide 60kWp&nbsp;with 120kWh storage&nbsp;in the settlement, and 20kWp&nbsp;with&nbsp;60kWh storage&nbsp;in the host town.&nbsp;A&nbsp;100kVA&nbsp;diesel-generator serves&nbsp;as&nbsp;back-up&nbsp;for the mini-grid in the settlement and was&nbsp;sized based on estimated consumption patterns.&nbsp;All demand sites in the settlement are spread around 4km², with the&nbsp;distribution lines extending&nbsp;to&nbsp;Xkm&nbsp;and covering&nbsp;customers&nbsp;in&nbsp;proximity to the&nbsp;mini-grids.&nbsp;Customers can activate via pre-paid tokens&nbsp;their&nbsp;electricity supply and&nbsp;have&nbsp;meters that&nbsp;measure consumption.&nbsp;In the initial operation period,&nbsp;average&nbsp;monthly&nbsp;electricity&nbsp;consumption&nbsp;of&nbsp;households in&nbsp;settlement and host town&nbsp;experienced&nbsp;a nearly&nbsp;six-fold rise&nbsp;and&nbsp;stands&nbsp;currently&nbsp;at&nbsp;about&nbsp;6kWh&nbsp;for both.&nbsp;This shows the contribution of the mini-grids&nbsp;in&nbsp;improving&nbsp;the&nbsp;energy access&nbsp;of&nbsp;previously excluded populations&nbsp;as&nbsp;well as&nbsp;the&nbsp;existence of demand for high-tier electricity supply.<br/>

Given this success,&nbsp;ESDS Kenya, acting complementary to&nbsp;EnDev,&nbsp;is&nbsp;commissioned&nbsp;by the BMZ&nbsp;to facilitate the expansion of the&nbsp;mini-grids&nbsp;into the Villages 2 and 3 of the Kalobeyei Settlement.&nbsp;This takes place in coordination with the Turkana&nbsp;County government and serves its Kalobeyei Integrated Socio-Economic Development Plan (KISEDP).&nbsp;As market-studies by&nbsp;EnDev&nbsp;suggested that the [https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2019-04-17-MEI-Infrastructure majority of refugee households]&nbsp;cannot afford the current, already subsidized&nbsp;tariff, financing schemes are being explored as support measures&nbsp;to reach&nbsp;a broader&nbsp;consumer base.&nbsp;As a second pillar of its activities, ESDS Kenya assists UNHCR in its&nbsp;transition towards a cleaner energy supply by supporting the solarization of&nbsp;its&nbsp;infrastructure&nbsp;in Kalobeyei and Kakuma&nbsp;and enacting energy efficiency measures&nbsp;through technical&nbsp;and legal&nbsp;assessments.&nbsp;<br/>

However, the outbreak of COVID-19&nbsp;necessitated an adjustment to&nbsp;these&nbsp;plans:&nbsp;With the objective to provide&nbsp;immediate&nbsp;and&nbsp;high-impact support&nbsp;to&nbsp;Kalobeyei’s inhabitants,&nbsp;ESDS Kenya prioritized&nbsp;the connection of&nbsp;critical&nbsp;facilities&nbsp;to the mini-grids&nbsp;that&nbsp;reinforce&nbsp;response measures&nbsp;to the pandemic.&nbsp;In discussion with UNHCR,&nbsp;it&nbsp;was decided to electrify&nbsp;3 health&nbsp;clinics,&nbsp;2 in the settlement and&nbsp;1&nbsp;in the host town,&nbsp;4 learning institutions in the settlement&nbsp;that serve as isolation&nbsp;centers, and a WFP horticultural farm&nbsp;that&nbsp;supports&nbsp;food&nbsp;security.&nbsp;For all facilities, the&nbsp;ESDS’&nbsp;team conducted rapid need&nbsp;assessments&nbsp;and&nbsp;designed the technical systems&nbsp;before the construction&nbsp;work for the distribution lines was&nbsp;tendered&nbsp;in a fast-tracked process.<br/>

These measures improve the preparedness of the Kalobeyei Settlements and Host Community Town to&nbsp;Covid-19&nbsp;and&nbsp;were&nbsp;completed despite the restrictions on movement and interaction put in place by authorities. With the&nbsp;first infection reported on 25th&nbsp;May 2020&nbsp;in Kakuma and Kalobeyei, the&nbsp;connected facilities&nbsp;take a significant role in curbing the spread of the virus and&nbsp;contribute to response measures of authorities.&nbsp;Notwithstanding the fact that the mini-grid connection of the facilities&nbsp;took place under light of the pandemic, the impact of&nbsp;their&nbsp;electrification&nbsp;goes beyond&nbsp;Covid-19.&nbsp;It&nbsp;improves health&nbsp;and education&nbsp;services,&nbsp;offers&nbsp;learning&nbsp;opportunities&nbsp;and&nbsp;sustains&nbsp;the food supply&nbsp;in&nbsp;Kalobeyei&nbsp;for refugees and host community. Their&nbsp;access to sustainable energy&nbsp;enhances&nbsp;their&nbsp;self-reliance and quality of life&nbsp;which&nbsp;contribute to&nbsp;ESDS’ broader objectives.&nbsp;<br/>

However,&nbsp;it must be noted that during&nbsp;the&nbsp;implementation&nbsp;two main challenges&nbsp;were&nbsp;identified: First, despite&nbsp;accelerating the&nbsp;process,&nbsp;it took 5 months from initial request to completion&nbsp;which signifies the difficulties for&nbsp;development cooperation organisation&nbsp;like GIZ&nbsp;to provide short-term emergency response measures.&nbsp;This shows the&nbsp;potential of&nbsp;conceptualizing&nbsp;scalable solutions that can&nbsp;be&nbsp;rapidly deployed&nbsp;and&nbsp;dismantled,&nbsp;e.g.&nbsp;containerized&nbsp;system, in emergency situations, which,&nbsp;however,&nbsp;must be differentiated from development efforts. This&nbsp;demonstrates the&nbsp;clear delimitations between humanitarian and development&nbsp;projects and links&nbsp;to&nbsp;the second&nbsp;encountered&nbsp;challenge, that is&nbsp;the&nbsp;sustainability of&nbsp;rapid response measures.&nbsp;In&nbsp;the case of Kalobeyei,&nbsp;it was not possible to conceptualize&nbsp;a&nbsp;self-sustaining&nbsp;business model for the&nbsp;operation and maintenance of the distribution lines&nbsp;prior to their installation&nbsp;which&nbsp;still relies on ESDS Kenya’s support.&nbsp;This opens the questions how response measures providing immediate relief can be reconciled with&nbsp;sustainability.&nbsp;<br/>

These are the&nbsp;next steps&nbsp;ESDS Kenya&nbsp;will&nbsp;work towards, that is&nbsp;sustaining&nbsp;the&nbsp;distribution lines&nbsp;to ensure their functioning long-term wise. Moreover,&nbsp;once&nbsp;pandemic-related restrictions allow, the team will&nbsp;refocus&nbsp;its attention&nbsp;to&nbsp;its initial plans&nbsp;of&nbsp;connecting&nbsp;additional&nbsp;customers&nbsp;in the other villages of the settlement&nbsp;to the mini-grids.<br/>

= Contact =

For more information about the project, please contact '''[[User:Jackson Mutonga|Jackson Mutonga]]'''.

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[[Category:Humanitarian_Energy]]
[[Category:Mini-grid]]
[[Category:Kenya]]